DEALING WITH TRANSITION by BILL BURNS
We are in a time of transition. The
Church is still moving from the second to the third Day. And, as prophetic
people, we are moving from the third to the fourth watch.
Small Straws: We are entering a season of great change and new beginnings – life
changes that will last a life time.
Transition is unsettling – changes that challenge our comfort level take place.
Small Straws: “When you do not feel up to the task remember who you are in Me. I
will give you the grace to meet and overcome every challenge and gain the
victory. Simply trust and obey. Observe. Do you see that you have come up?
Your spiritual atmosphere is quite different than it was eight months ago.
Rejoice in the new life and new opportunities that challenge you to spiritual
maturity. The temptation now will be to go back to an old place of easy, lazy
comfort. See beyond the mundane and ordinary routine of every day
existence to see the exceptional work that I am performing. You are a catalyst
in a rich and dynamic move of My Spirit. Look beyond the natural to realize your
potential.
You have been in a period of transition, which is not over yet. It has been and
will continue to be very unsettling for a while, but your best use of this time
is to grow up spiritually, exercise your faith, and trust that I will bring you
through. Then, your feeling of impotence will give way to My power and dominion.
1 Peter 5:10 But may the God of all grace,
who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a
while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
Even when your life appears to be static, in reality you have been on a steep
learning curve. Take a quick glance back to see yourself in this process of
exponential spiritual growth.
So, the new plateau isn’t what you expected? Out of your comfort zone? This
level of discomfort will be the impetus that will move you into defining moments
that will stabilize you in your kingdom position and destiny. Do not despise the
day of small beginnings.
I am bringing you to a place of stability and maturity by imparting wisdom that
will direct your steps and establish your heart in My kingdom. You will go from
strength to strength as you use the victory of past challenges as stepping
stones for advancement.
You have entered a time of historic proportions and significance. What
you do with the choices that present themselves to you will yield extraordinary
fruit and consequences. Choose wisely.”
The Lord has something in mind, and that is to establish us on a new spiritual
level and settle us in a new spiritual land.
Small Straws: Even though things still seem strange, unpredictable, and
unsettled, you can rest assured that I know every detail of your circumstances.
I hold your times and seasons in My hand, says the Lord, and I will establish,
settle, and strengthen you in the purposes of My will. All you have to do is
trust Me and obey My leading. Doubt, frustration, and double-mindedness will get
you nowhere. Make a quality decision now to stand in faith that I will lead the
way and bring you through this difficult time in triumph.
The Trumpet: I come to you to take you on a spiritual journey. It is true that
eye has not seen, nor has ear heard of the glory and the wonder that I am about
to bring you into. These times and events have been established on the heavenly
calendar, and they shall proceed and come forth in fullness. Encourage yourself
in the Lord even as David did. Come to a higher place. Come with desire and
anticipation of that which I am about to provide for you and do in you, say the
Lord, for I have sent My Spirit to nurture, teach, and empower you. I have sent
My Spirit to take you on a journey into the fullness of the Kingdom and My
purposes. Enjoy the journey, and your peace shall be established. Psalms 36:8
They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them
drink from the river of Your pleasures.
The Biblical Example
Israel out of Egypt – you have not been this way before – don’t do what they
did.
The Lord sent Moses with signs and wonders to lead a people out of bondage into
their own land.
The book of Exodus records Israel’s transition from one place to the next; from
slavery to sonship, from bondage to liberty.
Exodus 3:7-8 And the LORD said: "I have surely seen the oppression of My people
who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I
know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the
Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a
land flowing with milk and honey.
Exodus 6:2-4 And God spoke to Moses and said to him: "I am the LORD. I appeared
to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD I was
not known to them. I have also established My covenant with them, to give them
the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers.
In Exodus 12:21 the Lord gave Israel a new beginning of months (season) by
promise, and He then brought them out of Egypt with signs and wonders.
Exodus 13:21-22 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to
lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go
by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar
of fire by night from before the people.
The Enemy Pursues
Exodus 14:10-12 And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their
eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid,
and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD. Then they said to Moses,
"Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the
wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? "Is this
not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve
the Egyptians?’ For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than
that we should die in the wilderness."
1. They were afraid
2. Fear produced complaining, and the continued to complain in their transition.
Numbers 14:11 Then the LORD said to Moses: "How long will these people reject
Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have
performed among them?
Numbers 14:19-23 "Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the
greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even
until now." Then the LORD said: "I have pardoned, according to your word; but
truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD––
because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt
and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have
not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to
their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.
3. Complaining breeds rebellion, disobedience and unbelief.
The Apostle Paul Used Israel’s Exodus as an object lesson for New Testament
believers.
Hebrews 3:
5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony
of those things which would be spoken afterward,
6 but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the
confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you will hear His voice,
8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the
wilderness,
9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years.
10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray
in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’"
12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in
departing from the living God;
13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be
hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast to the end,
15 while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your
hearts as in the rebellion."
16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of
Egypt, led by Moses?
17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned,
whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who
did not obey?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Hebrews 4:1-3 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us
fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was
preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit
them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed
do enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not
enter My rest,’" although the works were finished from the foundation of the
world.
From Slaves to Warriors
The Lord wanted to turn slaves (out of Egypt) into warriors, but fear and
unbelief produced rebellion.
Numbers 13:1-2 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Send men to spy out the
land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of
their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them."
Numbers 13:
25 And they returned from spying out the land after forty days.
26 Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation
of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought
back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the
land.
27 Then they told him, and said: "We went to the land where you sent us. It
truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.
28 "Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are
fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there.
29 "The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites,
and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and
along the banks of the Jordan."
30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once
and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it."
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against
the people, for they are stronger than we."
32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had
spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that
devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great
stature.
33 "There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and
we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight."
Numbers 14:
1 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept
that night.
2 And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the
whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or
if only we had died in this wilderness!
3 "Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives
and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to
Egypt?"
4 So they said to one another, "Let us select a leader and return to Egypt."
Are you content to stay in bondage, or are you willing to become a warrior?
What to do in transition
1. Don’t let fear drive you
2. Don’t grumble or test (question) the Lord
3. Don’t allow unbelief rule
4. Don’t rebel (disobey His Word)
5. DO understand the prophetic word; receive and believe it
The Trumpet: I am calling you forth to a new level of faith and a brand new
experience, which shall be called "the dominion of the Lord." For, I shall
establish My dominion in you and through you to be exercised over your
circumstances and over all the places where I send you, where you work, and
where you live. I am the Lord of Hosts, and all the earth is Mine, and I call
you to also have dominion and to reign with Me spiritually. These are the days
of preparation. Renew yourselves. Remove all anxiety, worry, doubt and
unfaithfulness. Place yourself securely in My hand, and I will bring your forth
into that which I have predestined for you. This is the Day of My power, and it
is your heritage to walk in the fullness of it, says the Lord. So, rise up in a
faith that will not be denied and will receive all that I have purposed.
If you could but see by way of vision into My purposes that have been
established for the end of the age you would rejoice, and again I say you would
rejoice. For all of your troubles, all of your heartache, all of your worry, all
of your anxiety, all of your trials, would diminish and flow away in the power
of the anointing that I shall place upon you. These are indeed the finest days
of Zion. These are the days which you, My people, shall have an abiding glory
that shall not fade away. Indeed Zion must dwell in the glory that shall
permeate the whole land. For it has been purposed from the beginning of time and
it shall be revealed and brought into manifestation in this the end of the age.
Remember that I have appointed you for such a time as this, and I have called
you into My purposes for these days. You are a royal generation and a chosen
priesthood, the mighty warriors of the end of the age--even in the likeness of
David's mighty men. The men of renown that have gone on before you are waiting
to see what you will do with this anointing for war that will bring the victory.
This is the hour of the warrior, and the warrior's purpose is to establish My
dominion in the land. Begin by establishing My dominion as a warrior in your
home, in your personal life, in your place of work, in your church, and the
whole of your lives will begin to flow with an exceeding and abundant measure of
power as you go step by step with hearts uplifted into the fullness of My
Kingdom, says the Lord God Almighty
Believe, My little ones. I speak of you as little, as in childlike faith, but
not little in power and not little in anointing; only little in your own eyes
that you may be large in My kingdom and that you may become exactly what I have
called you to be. I tell you that it is My good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. Do you not know that within My kingdom I prosper My people and heal
them and deliver them? I will bring you into the fullness of that which has been
spoken of and written even in the holy scriptures. Today, I speak into your ears
that if you will now step into the new season in faith, you will come forth in
power. You have walked through the fires and have been tried by the fire. Now
you can step over the threshold, beloved, for you are entering a new season of
glory and of My manifest presence, says the Lord. Surely, I will come and do
this work, and will touch you and will speak a word and lead you and guide you
into all of that I have purposed for you.
Trust In The Lord
2 Samuel 22:31 As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the LORD is proven;
He is a shield to all who trust in Him.
Psalm 5:11 But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever
shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name Be
joyful in You.
Psalm 9:10 And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You,
LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.
Psalm 18:2 he LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my
strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my
stronghold.
Transition Now
Transition has been going on for awhile, but it is not complete. Transition will
be earmarked by life-changing circumstances in some cases.
In other cases, the changes required may be small but important. In any case,
everyone will be affected in one way or another. What matters is how we respond
to the changes. It is the Lord who is doing this work, and we can trust Him.